Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Actually, I have that song in my head now and thought it would look super clever if I incorporated it into the title of this post. Did it work? Didn't think so.

I learned something new today that I wanted to share. If it is someone's birthday in Switzerland, you should congratulate them, naturally, and the best way to do it is to say "Graduliere!" (Congratulations!) or "Herzlichen Gluckwuensch zum Gerburtstag" (Happy Birthday!) or simply the ever so boring but popular "Happy Birthday" which works fine but doesn't show your super clever German skills... and then youkiss them three times on the cheek, more of an air kiss really... so left, right, left... or was that right, left, right?

Either way, small cultural phenomenon... the Swiss are three kissers. Not two, not four, three.Anyway, this led me to search for a guide to how many kisses you should do per European country, which led me to this French kissing map, which isn't what it sounds like but is rather a map of how many kisses you do for a particular French region which led me to the Strange Maps blog where what do you know is on the homepage but the Pop vs. Soda USA Map - another map I never knew I needed but can now not live without. (Ps. I grew up in Ohio, which I always knew was a pop sort of place...the coke regions have always puzzled me though - "What do you want?"... "A coke.." "Ok what type?".... "Sprite." Don't get it. Never will.)Regardless of my ability to go off the topic. The point of this post... three kisses. Don't forget.

I wonder what "other" was... "soft drink"? I think we just referred to the drink by name. My parents had a restaurant and we used to do the mix up all of the flavors thing. That and sneak sips of plum wine.

The Swiss "3 kiss" is the standard greeting and goodbye for anyone closer than an acquaintance. My favorite is when I meet someone, shake hands with them, have such an awesome time talking to them, that we do the kisses at the end of the night. It's like saying, "I really like you!" haha